Research and Reports
Our work contributes to many academic papers and publications and is referred to in the news and by media outlets. Here is a selection of those reports.
Changing the Rules of the Game
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Our new research with David Mansfield explores the extent to which the Taliban has concentrated power in the hands of Pashtun fighters and how they have centralised, regulated, and maximised revenues from cross-border value chains in Afghanistan since the August 2021 takeover.
Building on previous research under XCEPT, this research contributes to a growing body of work to help develop a better understanding of the shift in political and economic power in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover in August 2021.
Changing the Rules of the Game
Centralising power and cutting corruption is swelling the Taliban’s finances.
2023
A Taxing Narrative
Miscalculating Revenues and Misunderstanding the conflict in Afghanistan.
2021
Managing local resources and conflict
Value chain mapping and visualisation of the talc, fuel and transit trade in Afghanistan.
2021
War Gains: A case study on Nimroz Province
How the economic benefits of the conflict are distributed in Afghanistan and the implications for peace
2021
War Gains - Annex Document
Annex to the War gains case study on Nimroz Province
2021
EU4MONITORING DRUGS Special Report
Emerging evidence of Afghanistan's role as a producer and supplier of ephedrine and methamphetamine
2020
Mules, Pick-Ups and Container Traffic
This report is currently unavailable
2020
When The Water Runs Dry
What is to be done with the 1.5 million settlers in the deserts of southwest Afghanistan when their livelihoods fail.
2020
The Helmand Food Zone: The Illusion of Success
How the Helmand Food Zone was developed and the different actors involved in its implementation.
2019
US Airstrikes
How US Airstrikes obscured a dramatic development in the Afghan drugs industry.
2019
Denying Revenue or Wasting Money
Assessing the Impact of the air campaign against 'Drug labs' in Afghanistan
2019
Stirring up the hornet's nest
How the Population of Rural Helmand view the current Counterinsurgency Campaign
2018
Still Water Runs Deep
Illicit Poppy and the Transformation of the Deserts of Southwest Afghanistan
2018
Truly Unprecedented
How the Helmand Food Zone supported an increase in the province's capacity to produce opium.
2017
Understanding Control and Influence
What opium poppy and tax reveal about the writ of the Afghan State
2017
Time to Move On
Developing an informed development response to Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan
2016
Draining the deserts of Afghanistan
Following the fall of the Taliban many people moved to desert areas, which, in 2002, were nothing but sand.
2016
Earth Observation Topic Guide
Earth Observation in Climate and Environment Development Programmes
2016
The Devil is in the Detail
Nangarhar's continued decline into insurgency, violence and widespread drug production
2016
Drinking the Poisoned Water
Monitoring and Evaluation in today's Afghanistan
2015
Effective M&E in Conflict Environments
This report explains the core problem in typical data collection techniques: bias.
2015
Where Have All The Flowers Gone?
Reasons for the drop in the poppy crop in Afghanistan in 2015
2015
Helmand On The Move
Migration as a response to crop failure
2015
Nangahar: A Case Study
Examining the impact of IDEA NEW on opium
2015
From Bad They Made it Worse
The concentration of opium poppy in areas of conflict in the provinces of Helmand and Nangarhar
2014
All Bets Are Off
Prospects for (B)reaching Agreements and Drug Control in Helmand and Nangarhar in the run up to Transition
2013
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Counter-narcotic efforts and their effects in Nangarhar and Helmand in the 2010-1011 growing season
2011
Managing Concurrent and Repeated Risks